The U.S. National Science Foundation’s ACCESS program supports researchers from all domains by providing valuable resources to help power their incredible work. This year, ACCESS has been recognized in the 22nd edition of the HPCwire Readers’ Choice Awards presented at the 2025 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC25), in St. Louis.
ACCESS was recognized with the following honors:
2025 Readers’ Choice Award – Best Use of HPC in Energy
Harnessing Jetstream2 to Advance Sustainable Agriculture through Biochar and Nitrogen Research at Tennessee State University
Two graduate students from Tennessee State University leveraged U.S. National Science Foundation ACCESS resources on Jetstream2 to reveal how biochar and optimized nitrogen use can improve soil health, reduce emissions, and support sustainable biofuel production. This research points toward scalable agricultural practices that can cut greenhouse gas emissions, reduce farmer reliance on costly fertilizers, and strengthen bioenergy and food security for society at large.
2025 Readers’ Choice Award – Best Use of HPC in Financial Services
High-Performance Modeling of Mortgage Debt Relief and Foreclosure Dynamics Using U.S. National Science Foundation ACCESS Resources on Stampede3
Cornell University leveraged U.S. National Science Foundation ACCESS allocations on Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)’s Stampede3 to model how debt relief design and mortgage firm behavior shaped the U.S. foreclosure crisis. This produced insights that earned international recognition in regulatory economics.
2025 Readers’ Choice Award – Best Use of HPC in the Cloud (Use Case)
San Diego Supercomputer Center Project Enabling Large Scale AI Research on NVIDIA DGX Cloud Resources
The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) provides in-depth support to research groups. The effort concentrates on using the NVIDIA DGX cloud platform with a focus on optimization of system setups, performance monitoring, and determining the best ways to run National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot projects on the resources.
The coveted annual HPCwire Readers’ Choice Awards are determined through a nomination and voting process with the global HPCwire community, as well as selections from the HPCwire editors. The awards are an annual feature of the publication, constituting prestigious recognition from the HPC community. They are revealed each year to kick off the annual supercomputing conference, which showcases high-performance computing, networking, storage, and data analysis.
“While the early advances in applying AI to science and engineering are producing exciting and impressive results, traditional HPC continues to drive breakthrough discoveries for mission-critical workloads and applications,” said Tom Tabor, CEO of TCI Media, publishers of HPCwire. “The 2025 Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards truly capture this dynamic era of innovation. “Across the globe, grand challenge problems are being tackled — and often solved — thanks to HPC, now amplified and accelerated by AI. Yet, many of these remarkable achievements rarely receive the recognition they deserve for their impact on society. With input from our worldwide community of HPC experts and the industry’s most respected editorial panel, the Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards stand as a powerful acknowledgment of the depth and diversity of HPC accomplishments worldwide. We extend our sincere gratitude and warmest congratulations to all of this year’s winners,” added Tabor.
More information on these awards can be found at the HPCwire website.
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